View From the End (User)

You Mean OS/2 Isn't Dead After All?!

1999 marks what many consider to be the end of the twentieth century, but who
in their right mind would have thought it would mark the end of Ziff-Davis' constant
declarations of OS/2's death? Maybe it's just because I've seen their magazines
trash-talk OS/2 since the middle of 1995, but the thought of ZD publications actually
having good things to say about OS/2's continued existence in 1999 is a little unsettling.

What am I talking about? Well Sm@rt Reseller has published a small chain of articles
now on how IBM is mulling over the idea of releasing a Warp Client for eBusiness
(read as OS/2 Warp 5.0) to go along with their Warp Server for eBusiness (known
right now in beta testing as Aurora). But it goes even a step further. ZDNet AnchorDesk
has a poll online asking whether OS/2 still has a viable chance or whether it's
finished and needs to be buried. By some surprising twist of fate, the yeas are
winning by a margin of about 68% to 32%. To me this just sounds too fishy, coming
from Ziff-Davis, the company well-known by OS/2 users for over-hyping Microsoft's
products and refusing to acknowledge OS/2's superior features, ease of use, stability,
and speed, not to mention its vitality despite IBM's best efforts to drive OS/2
users to other platforms (Windows).

Now don't get me wrong--the author of at least one of the Sm@rt Reseller articles
is an avid OS/2 user, but since when did Ziff-Davis let that get in the way of their
Microsoft-centricity? And what's up with this startling number of pro-OS/2'ers entering
the survey? Could it be that there are four to five times as many OS/2 users in
the world as we all suspected? Or is it perhaps more likely a rigged survey to help
Microsoft demonstrate that there's plenty of support in the OS market for Windows
alternatives? ZD has been known in the past to blindly (and arrogantly) push Microsoft's
views, and such support for "alternative" OSes would thwart the Department
of Justice's anti-trust suit against Microsoft by undermining their evidence that
Windows holds monopoly status. Without evidence of a Windows monopoly, the DoJ and
19 remaining states' case can't show Microsoft abusing that monopoly to push its
own applications on everyone while forcing other developers (such as Intel, RealNetworks,
Netscape, and Apple) to back off their applications development.

Regardless of which way you view the ZDNet survey results, it's fundamental that
OS/2 users not put any significant faith in such an uncertain set of numbers. Only
a true showing of OS/2 user devotion to our favorite operating system should be
acceptable. The 6,000+ pre-orders for a Warp 5 client (from Mensys in Europe) and
the survey on the Indelible Blue website telling IBM how many people would actually
purchase such a thing and how much they'd be willing to pay -- these are the surveys
that ought to make the most difference. These are the untainted words of real life
OS/2 users speaking to IBM directly. If you haven't already, visit both these sites
and give your honest feedback:

Am I full of hot air? Foolish? Maybe. But the whole thing just reeks a bit much
for my tastes. Such a sudden resurgence of media attention to an OS they've declared
dead more times than I have fingers and toes tends to make me suspicious. I'd be
interested in hearing from other OS/2 users on this matter. We'll try to post any
of your comments on this article in next month's VOICE Newsletter. Drop me a line
at secretary@os2voice.org.